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Locals lose out in Rwanda's second-hand clothes war
By Moses GAHIGI
Kigali (AFP) July 1, 2018

Four Mali soldiers killed by landmine
Bamako (AFP) June 30, 2018 - Four Malian soldiers were killed on Saturday when their vehicle drove over a landmine in the central Mopti region, the local governor said, in the troubled desert region.

Governor Sidi Alassane Toure said the Malian army vehicle drove over the landmine near the border of the Koro region, killing four members of the national guard and wounding two others.

He added that ahead of Mali's presidential election on July, the army is "increasing patrols in this area, where there are tensions due to intercommunal conflicts".

In the Koro region, about 120 kilometres (74 miles) northeast of Mopti, several residents have said that "terrorists have started to plant landmines everywhere".

"Two weeks ago during the end of school year exams, a tricycle transporting children hit a mine -- we lost three children," said local Adama Togo.

The latest landmine deaths came a day after two soldiers and a civilian were killed in a suicide attack on the Malian headquarters of the G5 Sahel international anti-terror task force in the Mopti town of Sevare.

Mali's unrest stems from a 2012 ethnic Tuareg separatist uprising which was exploited by jihadists in order to take over key cities in the north.

The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

But large stretches of the country remain out of the control of Malian, French and UN forces, which are frequent targets of attacks, despite a peace accord signed with Tuareg leaders in mid-2015 aimed at isolating the jihadists.

The violence has also spilled over into both Burkina Faso and Niger.

Five Gambia police charged with activists' murders
Banjul, Gambia (AFP) June 29, 2018 - Gambian prosecutors have charged five police officers with murder over the deaths of three young protesters at an anti-pollution rally.

"Musa Fatty, Babucarr Cham and three other junior officers were taken to the Banjul Magistrate's Court and charged with murder," police spokesperson, Foday Conta, told AFP on Thursday evening.

"They have been remanded in custody by the court."

The violence occurred at a June 18 rally in Faraba Banta, 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of the capital, Banjul, where locals were protesting over the mining of sand which they say is badly polluting rice farms.

Police at the scene opened fire, killing two young men, while a third -- a 24-year-old student -- died of his injuries two days later.

Another six civilians and 16 police were also injured during the protest, according to an official toll.

Gambian President Adama Barrow ordered an investigation into the incident and the inspector general of police, who said he had not authorised the use of firearms against protesters, resigned.

The police would not be involved in the government's upcoming commission of inquiry, the spokesman said.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International cited witnesses as saying that demonstrators had been blocking mining-related road traffic when police reinforcements arrived and opened fire without warning.

Murder is a capital offence punishable by death in this small west African country.

But Barrow has placed a moratorium on the death penalty which was last used by his predecessor Yahya Jammeh in 2012 when nine convicts were executed by firing squad.

Across Rwanda, markets selling piles of cast-off clothes once worn by Americans have become the unlikely centre of a trade war that vendors say is ruining their livelihoods.

Kigali, determined to boost its domestic textiles industry, in 2016 raised tariffs on the importation of secondhand clothes, disrupting a multi-million dollar industry and setting it on a collision course with the United States.

Friends Celestin Twagirayezu, 33, and Mercelle Dusabe, 35, began selling secondhand clothes a decade ago at adjacent stalls in Kigali's popular Nyabugogo market in Kigali.

It was a good business which expanded quickly, allowing them to buy homes and get married.

Then Rwanda slapped a 12-fold increase on import tariffs on used clothes and a 10-fold increase on used footwear, a price hike that amounts to a de facto ban for cash-strapped traders.

"The decision took everyone by surprise, at first we relied on the stocked clothes but after a few months reality kicked in, and things went from bad to worse," said Twagirayezu.

"I am soon throwing in the towel".

- Second-hand economy -

East Africa imports around an eighth of the world's used clothing into an industry that employs some 355,000 people who earn $230 million a year, according to a study by the American development agency, USAID.

The large majority of these clothes come from the US and regional leaders, including Rwanda's Paul Kagame, blame the cast-offs for stymieing development of their own clothing industries.

While Twagirayezu has watched his business wither, Dusabe switched to selling Chinese imports, but is not faring much better.

"You can't imagine how many customers I have lost by switching to selling Chinese clothes! Many people still come asking for second-hand clothes, when they don't find them they don't come back," he said.

Twagirayezu agreed, saying customers prefer second-hand clothes to Chinese imports, citing the lower price and higher quality.

Initially, the East African Community regional bloc was united in its battle against used clothes.

But the alliance cracked as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda balked at the prospect of retaliatory loss of access to US markets via the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) whereby some countries can export some products to the US duty free.

- Trade freeze -

Rwanda, alone, did not capitulate and in 2016 its imports of used clothing dropped by a third.

In late March this year the US told Rwanda it would lose some of its AGOA benefits within 60 days as a result. The deadline since passed and no action was announced, but with President Donald Trump on the warpath over trade Rwanda is unlikely to be forgotten.

Rwanda's clothing industry is nascent, with only a couple of players, which means there are some surprising victims of the trade spat.

One of those losing out is Chinese garment maker C&H which set up in Kigali's special economic zone in order to enjoy AGOA benefits.

Many of its US clients have put orders on hold until the AGOA issue is resolved. "We have lost market in the US because of the AGOA situation," said manager Emmy Iraguha.

C&H has an annual turnover of $154 million and has been producing exclusively for export. It has not yet bowed to Rwandan government pressure to produce clothes for the local market to fill the gap left by the dearth of second-hand clothes.

Rwanda's other clothes producer is Uterxwa, which specialises in industrial clothing and uniforms, has welcomed the "positive move" to ban second-hand clothes.

- Chinese winners -

"Once the companies making clothes locally are many the products will be competitive, not only in Rwanda but even in the neighbouring countries," said managing director Ritesh Patel, alluding to the difficulty of producing clothes cheaply enough for the domestic market.

"The alternatives to secondhand clothes are very expensive," said Kevin Uwamahoro, a motorcycle taxi driver who crosses into Uganda to go clothes shopping at its still-thriving second-hand markets.

The big winner in this David and Goliath trade war might well be Chinese companies whose flood of cheap garments are set to replace used clothing while continuing to stifle local industrialisation.

"Considerable imports of Chinese clothing, both legitimate and undeclared, constitute the real threat to the East African textile industry," said the USAID study.

However, Andrew Mold of the UN's Economic Commission for Africa, said high import tariffs on clothes from China and India mean there is a "margin for regional firms to compete".

In the meantime, however, it is ordinary Rwandans -- buyers and sellers of second-hand clothes -- who continue to suffer.


Related Links
Africa News - Resources, Health, Food


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Gambia leader meets victims' families after deadly protest
Banjul, Gambia (AFP) June 22, 2018
Gambian president Adama Barrow paid tribute on Friday to three young protesters killed by police in an anti-pollution rally, urging witnesses to come forward to a commission of inquiry set up by his government. "You are the people that witnessed what happened here that day," Barrow told his audience in the village of Faraba Banta, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the capital, Banjul. "You are the most competent people to give evidence to the commission of inquiry." President Barrow - who last ... read more

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